Uma farsa: Post-Dictatorial Strategies of Forgetting and Remembering in Bernardo Kucinski’s K. Relato de uma busca

The novel K. Relato de uma busca, whose publication coincided with the Brazilian National Truth Commission, has proven remarkably more effective in producing a public and institutional reckoning with the crimes of the military regime than any of the institutional mechanisms implemented by the government or any other testimonial novel previously written about the abuses of the military regime. Its appeal, in part, has to do with Kucinski’s usage of various discourses—fiction, testimonial, epistolary—that successfully challenge the authoritative, and non-dialogic discourse of the military regime. This essay argues that in this novel, politics and fiction are inverted: instead of having a law that fictionalizes the memory of the violence perpetrated by the dictatorship, we have a work of fiction that, by memorializing the struggle of a father in search of his disappeared daughter, brings the crimes committed by the military back into the political discourse.

Metonymy in Mind, Language, and Communication

<p>The typical view considers metonymy as an intra-domain mapping which involves the source providing mental access to the target within the domain, with PART-WHOLE as the prototypical relation. This commonly held view of metonymy in Cognitive Linguistics pays attention to what happens after the domain, or rather, the WHOLE, has been established. How the WHOLE is formed seems to be missing. Based on the research results of cognitive science, especially in cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, and neuroscience, metonymy is tentatively argued to be an innate cognitive mechanism involving PART-WHOLE FORMING, PART-WHOLE/PART RELATING processes. The PART-WHOLE FORMING process establishes the WHOLE from the PART: It picks up some prominent element(s) in an interactive process to form a patterned experience, and the PART-WHOLE/PART RELATING process relates PART to PART, relating PART to the WHOLE and vice versa. The PART-WHOLE/PART RELATING process is made possible by the PART-WHOLE FORMING process. Metonymic operations usually precede metaphoric operation. Metaphor is essentially grounded on metonymy. Metonymy as a cognitive mechanism is most noticeably realized in language. It operates in various aspects of language and language use. The experience pattern (i.e. the WHOLE) formulated through the PART-WHOLE FORMING process is found to underpin the process of grammaticalization, the development of meaning prototype, and to motivate such daily language use as football nicknaming and to bring in certain cognitive and communicative functions. In the light of this view of metonymy, grammaticalization is considered from the conceptual perspective as a process from the general/global to the specific/local, or from focus on one specific aspect to focus on another particular aspect within the global WHOLE, rather than the usually held concrete-to-abstract process. This also applies to word meaning prototypes. Word meaning develops due to the dynamic of meaning prototypes. When considered from the conceptual perspective, meaning prototypes generally develop from the general/global to the specific/local with the change and specification of contextual situations. The cognitive analysis of football nicknames also suggests that metonymy is overwhelming and provides the requisite basis for metaphor. The PART-WHOLE FORMING and the PART-WHOLE/PART RELATING processes of metonymy as an inherent cognitive mechanism often interact in the mind, which is evidenced in language and may be best illustrated through analysis of interactive communication in general, and dialogic discourse in particular. Metonymy in interaction is embodied in its functions and operations in dialogue and its contribution to the dialogue as a discourse entity. Metonymy operates in dialogic discourse in various patterns of GENERAL-SPECIFIC scheme. It operates in the development of dialogue and helps structure the dialogic discourse, making it a coherent discourse entity; it makes meaning out of the local utterance and relates it to the whole dialogue; it underlies the decision-making process, helping make a final decision among alternatives. It also motivates the problem-solving process, helping formulate and organise replies to the questions posed by the counterpart in dialogic discourse, and facilitating the solution of daily problems.</p>

Metonymy in Mind, Language, and Communication

<p>The typical view considers metonymy as an intra-domain mapping which involves the source providing mental access to the target within the domain, with PART-WHOLE as the prototypical relation. This commonly held view of metonymy in Cognitive Linguistics pays attention to what happens after the domain, or rather, the WHOLE, has been established. How the WHOLE is formed seems to be missing. Based on the research results of cognitive science, especially in cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, and neuroscience, metonymy is tentatively argued to be an innate cognitive mechanism involving PART-WHOLE FORMING, PART-WHOLE/PART RELATING processes. The PART-WHOLE FORMING process establishes the WHOLE from the PART: It picks up some prominent element(s) in an interactive process to form a patterned experience, and the PART-WHOLE/PART RELATING process relates PART to PART, relating PART to the WHOLE and vice versa. The PART-WHOLE/PART RELATING process is made possible by the PART-WHOLE FORMING process. Metonymic operations usually precede metaphoric operation. Metaphor is essentially grounded on metonymy. Metonymy as a cognitive mechanism is most noticeably realized in language. It operates in various aspects of language and language use. The experience pattern (i.e. the WHOLE) formulated through the PART-WHOLE FORMING process is found to underpin the process of grammaticalization, the development of meaning prototype, and to motivate such daily language use as football nicknaming and to bring in certain cognitive and communicative functions. In the light of this view of metonymy, grammaticalization is considered from the conceptual perspective as a process from the general/global to the specific/local, or from focus on one specific aspect to focus on another particular aspect within the global WHOLE, rather than the usually held concrete-to-abstract process. This also applies to word meaning prototypes. Word meaning develops due to the dynamic of meaning prototypes. When considered from the conceptual perspective, meaning prototypes generally develop from the general/global to the specific/local with the change and specification of contextual situations. The cognitive analysis of football nicknames also suggests that metonymy is overwhelming and provides the requisite basis for metaphor. The PART-WHOLE FORMING and the PART-WHOLE/PART RELATING processes of metonymy as an inherent cognitive mechanism often interact in the mind, which is evidenced in language and may be best illustrated through analysis of interactive communication in general, and dialogic discourse in particular. Metonymy in interaction is embodied in its functions and operations in dialogue and its contribution to the dialogue as a discourse entity. Metonymy operates in dialogic discourse in various patterns of GENERAL-SPECIFIC scheme. It operates in the development of dialogue and helps structure the dialogic discourse, making it a coherent discourse entity; it makes meaning out of the local utterance and relates it to the whole dialogue; it underlies the decision-making process, helping make a final decision among alternatives. It also motivates the problem-solving process, helping formulate and organise replies to the questions posed by the counterpart in dialogic discourse, and facilitating the solution of daily problems.</p>

LEXICAL AND GRAMMATICAL MEANS OF AGREEMENT EXPRESSION IN ENGLISH DIALOGIC DISCOURSE

Issues related to the study of the structure of speech communication, the linguistic status of its affirmative units, belong to the list of those that become relevant in modern linguistics. The expression of agreement is mostly observed in dialogical unity. This phenomenon is a kind of conciliatory response act, which is used to decode the deep meaning of the relationship between interlocutors. The study describes the parameters of lexical, morphological and syntactic explicators of agreement, taking into account pragmatic, cognitive and psychological factors that function in English communication. The research material is English dialogic discourse. The basis of agreement is the statement of the correctness of the interlocutor’s opinion and the presentation of communicators’ views unity. The prospect of new studies is seen in the representation of the intention of argumentation in scientific discourse.

Gifted Adolescent Readers’ Perceptions of How Teachers Should (or Should Not) Listen During Dialogic Discourse

Effective listening is essential when teachers facilitate instructional classroom discussions. While the intersection between teacher listening and how students engage in discussions has received a wealth of research attention from other fields, this important phenomenon continues to be underresearched in the gifted and literacy education fields. To deepen our understanding of the phenomenon of teacher listening from students’ perspectives, we conducted an in-depth focus group study with middle school gifted students from five schools in a Southeastern state in the United States. Findings of our data analysis revealed four key interrelated themes: (a) teachers as active listeners, (b) teacher character traits, (c) student feelings and behaviors, and (d) listening as a pedagogical tool. Of significance, this study revealed students’ perspectives of how gifted education teachers should listen and that their listening influences students’ sense of connectedness and motivation for learning. Implications for professional learning and recommendations for future research are discussed.

A prova de língua portuguesa em concursos para docentes: um contrassenso? / Portuguese Language Exam inTeachers Contest: A Nonsense?

Resumo: Este texto é um recorte da tese de doutorado e tem o objetivo de analisar o questionamento teórico sobre o conhecimento de língua portuguesa na construção de uma prova de Língua Portuguesa (LP) aplicada a candidatos no concurso para docente de sociologia do Instituto Federal de São Paulo (IFSP), em 2015. O embasamento teórico é a Análise Dialógica do Discurso com Bakhtin (2003, 2010) e Orlandi (2001, 2007). Questiona-se o caráter descritivo da prova voltada para aspectos formais, em detrimento da discussão dos sentidos possíveis de uso da língua, como preconizam os Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais (PCN) e a Base Nacional Comum Curricular (BNCC). Esta pesquisa segue metodologia qualitativa, de cunho documental, partindo da materialidade dos enunciados da prova de LP, com olhar para as práticas sociais. É importante ressaltar que em 2018, três anos depois, o IFSP aplicou prova a candidatos com a mesma formação, ressignificando a avaliação de modo a não valorizar aspectos gramaticais apenas.Palavras-chave: enunciado; dialogismo; sentidos.Abstract: This text is an excerpt from the doctoral thesis and it aims to analyse the theoretical questionnaire about the knowledge of Portuguese language in the construction of a Portuguese Language (PL) exam applied to candidates in the contest for professor of sociology at the Federal Institute of São Paulo (IFSP, in Portuguese), in 2015. The theoretical basis is the Dialogic Discourse Analysis with Bakhtin (2003, 2010) and Orlandi (2001, 2007). It is questioned the descriptive character of the test, which was focused on formal aspects, at the expense of the discussion of the possible meanings of language use, as recommended by the National Curriculum Parameters (PCN, in Portuguese) and the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC, in Portuguese). This research follows qualitative methodology, a documentary nature, starting from the materiality of the statements of the PL test, with focus on social practices. It is important to emphasize that in 2018, three years later the previously mentioned contest, the IFSP applied tests to candidates with the same background, reframing the evaluation so as not to consider only grammatical aspects.Keywords: enunciated; dialogism; meanings.